“Ok Bex,” Comfort said walking up to the reception desk, “I’ve got details for you of a Mr Matthew Thomas we’ve just brought in. Can you contact his wife for us, the number’s on the sheet.”

“Thanks Comfort. Here what do you know about those to over there?” Bex asked pointing to Nina and Abs who were deep in conversation by the staffroom door.

“Don’t ask me, I try and keep out of anything involving Nina if I can help it. You never no Bex they might just be innocently talking.”

“Yeah right,” Bex added going back to her computer. Comfort went back out to the ambulance telling Nina she’d meet her out there as she went past. She went and sat in the ambulance with her cup of coffee. Within a couple of minutes Nina came storming out of the department, got in the passenger side and slammed the door then starred out the window. Comfort paused for a minute and looked at her partner.

“You ok?” Comfort asked cautiously. She got no reply. Eventually Nina turned her head towards her.

“I’m fine ok,” she shouted, “that shout said Harrison road!” Neither of them spoke again until they got to the shout. Nina had calmed down by the time they got to the shout, they picked up the patient who had collapsed in the shopping centre with chest pains and headed back to the hospital. They took the patient into resus then headed to the coffee machine as they hadn’t had another shout.

“You ok now?” Comfort asked Nina again trying to sound friendly.

“What is it with you lot, you can’t keep you noses out of anything. Well I don’t want to be part of your little family and I’m not about to spill my guts out to you. Why I’m here, why I joined the army and why I left the army are none of your business.” Nina stormed out leaving Comfort in shock. She got her coffee then went to find Abs who had just finished with a patient. When she went out to the ambulance later on she found Nina again sitting in the ambulance staring out of the window. She decided it was wise not to speak so got in and drove to the next shout without any conversation. They spoke only when they had to and remained that way until they got back to the hospital again. The situation was getting to Comfort. She’d been making an effort and the pair had been getting on better recently and so she wasn’t happy with the current situation. She cornered Nina in the back of the ambulance where she was putting the trolley back.

“I wasn’t prying earlier ok I was just checking you were ok, looking out for each other yeah,” Comfort said to her standing by the back of the ambulance.

“Well I’m fine so you can forget it,” Nina replied in a normal tone but not looking up from what she was doing.

“Ok then it’s just I know we didn’t get on well to begin with, partly my fault I admit but I’d hope now that you’d come to us if you did need our help.”

“You’d just love that wouldn’t you,” Nina said turning,” you’d love me to come running to you so you could look wonderful, big wonderful Comfort helping little Nina through a moment of weakness!”

“Oh because we couldn’t have that could we. It’s wrong to show weakness, wreck that strong persona you’ve built up, you can’t be seen to be exposed in any way!” Comfort shouted back taking Nina by surprise. Nina paused staring out at comfort, an evil look in her eyes.

“You…” Nina started to say pushing straight past Comfort trying to get away.

“You can keep running Nina but you’ll run out of places to run to!” Comfort shouted after her. Nina paused as she came face to face with Abs. Stuck between both of them she started to panic, she now looked scared rather than angry. She looked between the two of them breathing more heavily then took off and ran round the side of the hospital. They followed and found her round the corner leaning against the wall. They approached her slowly, Abs spoke to her and encouraged her back to the ambulance. They sat down in the back, Comfort stood by the door.

“I see you have a few choices,” Abs said calmly leaning back in the seat, “you can run away again and let everything boil up inside, you could shoot us, or you could tell us what’s going on.” He paused but she didn’t respond. “We’re not going to go blabbing stuff around or putting it on posters around the department, if we do I’ll hand you the gun myself. We just want to help you, if you’ll let us.” Nina looked up at him then back at her hands.

“What you want me to tell you why I had a go at you this morning, why I jump in to everything, why I’m so bitter and twisted, how long you got,” Nina replied in a lighter tone.

“An hour till the end of the shift then as long as you want if you don’t mind moving to the local pub,” Comfort said making them laugh.

“Well I’m waiting,” Abs said looking at her.

“I’ve got an older brother right, when I was younger it was always oh see what your brothers done, that’s what you’ve got to aim for. It wasn’t that he was a lot cleverer than me but my parents couldn’t take it that I wanted to do different things. When I was doing my GCSE’s he’d just finished university, he got a First and had been offered a really good job, they wanted me to follow on. They wouldn’t have it when I said I didn’t want to do A-levels and go to university. I wanted to go to college but to do something practical. They wouldn’t have that either so in the end I gave in, they let be go to college but only if I did academic subjects which I did. I did all my work and stuff but I started to rebel as well, hanging out with all the local lads and stuff, staying out late. One time I hadn’t gone out with them because I was doing coursework, they got into a fight with another gang. I knew one of them and they said I’d not gone out deliberately. They decided to get revenge. They didn’t actually do anything but they threatened me with allsorts. The tied me up, said they were going to beat me up and worse. In the end they let me go but said they hadn’t forgotten. It was near my exams so I stayed in and got them done trying to keep out of sight as much as possible. I knew my exam results would be useless and I knew what would happen at home so as soon as I’d done them I ran away to the army. I was ok there, no one knew who I was and they were good lads so we got on well. It was stuff I wanted to be doing and I could forget everything else. It gave me confidence to do anything which was what I needed. I was there for a few years and it was great. Somehow they found out stuff about me, they’d got the impression that I was there to make trouble and they turned on me. I transferred to a different base but the bitchiness I faced got too much, I got disciplined time and time again so as soon as I could I got out.

            I went to the coach station and got a ticket to the first place I could, that’s how I ended up here. I found a flat for rent and then re-evaluated everything. I had an idea at one point to become a doctor just so I could go back to my parents and show them what I’d done. I knew that wasn’t going to happen but that’s how I came to be doing this. I knew this time I had to be strong, not let anything get under me and destroy me like they’d done before. I’d found a side to myself I hadn’t explored before and I wasn’t going to let that one be destroyed either. What I ended up with was this hard faced cow, still getting into trouble and destroying myself. I was on a path to self-destruct and didn’t know how to stop it. There was something about that first patient this morning that brought it all into reality, for the first time since I’d been here I felt scared. That’s what today’s been about.”

“Wow, I thought we were going to get an interesting story then,” Abs said not moving from his seat.

“Well now you know,” Nina said eventually after a while glancing at Comfort.

“Do you think I feel better now?” Comfort said walking into the ambulance. Nina didn’t get a chance to reply because they got a shout.

“I’ll be down the pub when you’ve dealt with that,” Abs said getting out the ambulance. The two women didn’t say much again on the way to the shout but the atmosphere had lightened. They returned to the ambulance station half an hour later and got changed. Nina went to walk home when Comfort caught up with her.

“Hey the pub’s that direction,” Comfort said pointing down the road.

“Yeah, I just felt like going home,” She replied but Comfort was having none of it and led her down to the pub.

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